On Friday night, ABC15’s new investigative series, “Politically Charged”, explored how Phoenix Police officers issued a commemorative “challenge coin” to celebrate the violent 2017 shooting of an Anti-Trump protester in the groin. Earlier Saturday, a Twitter user, pointed out that the symbol (indicia) on the coin actually has neo-Nazi ties.

ABC15 reported, “the coins were largely kept and shared by the Tactical Response Unit”. This unit is also responsible for mishandling the protests against police violence last year, where hundreds of people were arrested and some targeted by the Phoenix Police Department and subsequently charged with multiple serious felonies, the most outrageous being assisting a criminal street gang.

Sergeant Doug McBride heads up the Tactical Response Unit and is a former street gang detective according to ABC15’s report. The connection between these challenge coins, McBride’s role in the Tactical Response Unit, and his involvement in the egregious decision to issue gang charges against 2020 protesters is important because McBride is the so-called “expert” who testified that ACAB is a dangerous street gang.

In fact, McBride’s testimony compared ACAB, which is nothing more than a popular slogan critiquing police violence, to the Crips, Bloods, and Hell’s Angels. Meanwhile, the unit he oversees was actively carrying and selling these racist challenge coins that contain white supremacist codes and images that celebrate extreme violence. McBride’s Brady List-worthy testimony that ACAB is an actual street gang is not only an absolute abuse of (white) power, it is an outright lie. Under oath. 

Gang laws should be removed from the law books because they are designed to target Black and brown people; which is why McBride “missed” the fact that, if held to the same standards, members of his unit literally qualify for 4 out of 7 criteria to, by law, accuse individuals of street gang membership. That’s because these laws are written so broadly that they are easily manipulated to target specific people. If McBride wants to talk about gangs, he should focus on the one right under his nose in his own unit because Neo-Nazis are an actual violent threat to the community. If McBride is a gang “expert”, why did a Twitter user notice the indicia on the coin before McBride? 

When confronted by the recent attention to this racist challenge coin, PPD issued a statement doubling down: 

“The Phoenix Police Department did not participate in, encourage, fund or sanction the creation of any such challenge coin. There is also no indication such a coin was used for any public or official purpose on the Department’s behalf. A review at the time by a Commander with the Department was unable to substantiate any claims of misconduct related to a challenge coin.”

But once the Twitter user made the racist connections that the PPD was too incompetent to find on its own, Chief Williams issued a statement saying:

There are disturbing claims that members of the Phoenix Police Department circulated an inappropriate challenge coin related to a 2017 incident. “This is unacceptable and not in line with the behavior expected of my officers,” said Chief Jeri Williams. “I not only expect more, but demand more from my officers.”

Which is it, PPD? The people of Phoenix have every reason to believe Phoenix Police and white supremacy are two sides of the same anti-Black (challenge) coin. And we’re all wondering, where’s Allister Adel?